MELBOURNE, Australia — Anna Blinkova’s right hand and both of her legs were shaking, she had missed nine match points but also saved six, and the 25-year-old Russian tennis player was 41 points into a wild tiebreaker that was the longest ever in a women’s match at a Grand Slam tournament.
On the other side of the net at Rod Laver Arena, third-seeded Elena Rybakina was just as anxious.
Finally, when Blinkova lunged to retrieve a backhand, aiming just to keep the rally alive in a second-round match Thursday at the Australian Open, Rybakina’s next backhand sailed wide. It finished off a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (20) victory for Blinkova that she’ll never, ever forget.
“It took me courage,” she said. “It took me some certain calmness to stay in the present moment and to play point by point, no matter what happens.”
Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion and the Australian Open runner-up last year to Aryna Sabalenka, saved two match points in a third set that included six service breaks.
Blinkova twice served for the match but couldn’t wrap it up, and her double fault in the 12th game sent it to a 10-point tiebreaker. Once there, 13 minutes after her first match points, Blinkova had two more points at 9-7, but again Rybakina saved them, and so it went on.
The winner later described it, with a smile, as the “endless tiebreaker.” It went on for 32 minutes until Rybakina’s backhand error ended it. In terms of points (42), it was the longest tiebreaker ever in a women’s match at a major championship tournament.
“It was super tough. I had so many match points,” said Blinkova, who is ranked 57th on the WTA Tour and had 13 first-round exits in her previous 20 majors. “I tried to be aggressive, but my hand was shaking. And my legs, too!
“I tried to be calm, as much as I could.”
The match will also be memorable for her opponent, though for different reasons. Rybakina knows she wasted chances but took some comfort in the perseverance she demonstrated, even if it wasn’t rewarded with a victory.
“I’m really proud that I could fight till the end,” said the 24-year-old Rybakina, who was born in Russia but became a citizen of Kazakhstan in 2018 as she changed tennis federations. “I mean, you can’t always play perfect. And of course I could have lost it even earlier.”
It was a long, tough night for the tournament’s No. 3 singles seeds on Melbourne Park’s main court.
On the men’s side, Russia’s Daniil Medvedev avoided the upset, but the 2021 U.S. Open champion had to rally from two sets down to beat Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori, 3-6, 6-7 (1), 6-4, 7-6 (1), 6-0, in a 4-hour, 23-minute match that ended at 3:39 a.m. Friday in Melbourne.
The fifth day of this year’s tournament started with Poland’s Iga Swiatek, No. 1 in the women’s draw, making a narrow escape as the four-time major champ rallied from 4-1 down in the third set to beat 2022 Australian Open runner-up Danielle Collins of the United States, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
Swiatek was down two service breaks in the deciding set before she went on a roll, winning five consecutive games to finish off a match that featured wild momentum shifts and a 25-minute rain delay during its 3 hours and 14 minutes.
“You can actually relax a little bit more because you know that, ‘OK, probably I’m going to lose, so I don’t care anymore,'” Swiatek said. “Then it’s easier.”
In her on-court interview, she joked: “Honestly, I was on the airport already. But I wanted to fight to the end. I’m really proud of myself.”
Collins, who soon after the match revealed this would be her last season on tour, said she “left it all on the court” against Swiatek.
“Yeah, I lost 6-4 in the third to one of the best players in the world,” said the 30-year-old Collins, who played college tennis at Florida in her native Sunshine State as well as at Virginia. “And she played some great tennis.”
Swiatek next faces 50th-ranked Linda Noskova, who beat U.S. qualifier McCartney Kessler 6-3, 1-6, 6-4. The 24-year-old Kessler was a Times Free Press Best of Preps girls’ tennis player of the year during her time at Calhoun High School and a college standout at Florida.
Kessler made her WTA debut earlier this month, and she won her first Grand Slam match when she beat France’s Fiona Ferro 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the first round Tuesday.
Fifth-ranked Jessica Pegula of the United States, who had reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open the past three years, lost 6-4, 6-2 to Clara Burel. Another American, 2017 U.S. Open winner Sloane Stephens, took out No. 14 seed Daria Kasatkina, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, and advanced along with No. 11 Jelena Ostapenko, No. 12 Zheng Qinwen, No. 19 Elina Svitolina and No. 27 Emma Navarro.
The comeback major for 2021 U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu ended in a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 loss to Wang Yafan.
Carlos Alcaraz, the reigning Wimbledon men’s singles champ and the 2022 U.S. Open winner, dropped a set for the first time at this year’s Australian Open before recovering to beat Lorenzo Sonego.
With a strong breeze to contend with, the 20-year-old Spaniard was tested by Sonego before coming through in four sets, 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-3, 7-6 (3), and will next face Shang Juncheng, an 18-year-old wild-card entrant from China who ousted Sumit Nagal by winning 2-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4.
It will be the first time Alcaraz has faced a younger player on the ATP Tour.
“He beat some big guys,” Alcaraz said of Shang’s run to the semifinals in Hong Kong earlier this month. “So I know he has the level. He’s already there.”
Arthur Cazaux upset No. 8 Holger Rune, 7-6 (4), 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, but No. 13 Grigor Dimitrov, No. 14 Tommy Paul, No. 19 Cameron Norrie, No. 21 Ugo Humbert and No. 27 Felix Auger-Aliassime all advanced.
Two earlier matches went the distance before being decided in 10-point tiebreakers: Olympic champion Alexander Zverev fended off Lukas Klein 7-5, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (7) in 4 1/2 hours, and No. 11 Casper Ruud edged Max Purcell 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7).
“He played incredible. He was hitting every single ball as hard as he could from both sides,” Zverev said of Klein, a qualifier from Slovakia who is ranked 163rd on the ATP Tour. “I didn’t really know what to do most of the times. To be honest, he probably deserved to win the match more than me today.”